Lynch unlikely to stay past March

CITY MANAGER Bernie Lynch says he is willing to stay to help finish next fiscal year's budget under certain conditions, but may not have enough support from the City Council.

Mayor Rodney Elliott and Councilors Corey Belanger, Rita Mercier and Dan Rourke are expected to vote against allowing Lynch to stay beyond his March 10 departure. Some councilors said Lynch could have initially offered to stay longer and complete more of his contract.

"He made the decision on his own not to stay longer," Belanger said.

Lynch said Tuesday night he is moving forward with budget work and the next manager should craft the final document.

Councilor John Leahy was initially leaning against keeping Lynch on, but said Friday he won't make up his mind until he hears from the manager.

Councilor James Milinazzo, long a strong Lynch supporter, is leading the charge to convince Lynch to stay longer. He has the support of Councilor William Samaras and likely the support of Councilor Bill Martin.

Councilor Ed Kennedy, who did not support giving Lynch a new deal, also supports an extended stay.

Milinazzo has argued a longer stay for Lynch means a completed budget and added time to find a new manager. "I don't think we should rush," Milinazzo said. "Sixty days in my opinion is a short period of time and maybe not enough time to advertise and publicize the position and fill it."

Lynch has not disclosed his "conditions," but has been clear that he will leave when the budget is complete if he is kept on.

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The council meets in a special session Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the manager search.

AN EXECUTIVE session scheduled on Tuesday night was to discuss contract negotiations. Councilors thought that meant Lynch wanted to talk about a new deal.

Especially because City Solicitor Christine O'Connor told them as much before the meeting, and repeated it publicly.

Rourke, at his first meeting, sniffed out that Lynch wanted to talk about his current pact by asking publicly what he wanted to discuss.

Rourke told The Column he had a feeling Lynch's current contract was in play. He said it would have been very early to ask a new council to start negotiating a new deal. Lynch's contract was to expire July 31.

Rourke said Lynch had not contacted him since the November election; other councilors also said they were surprised Lynch never called to congratulate them, such as Belanger and Kennedy.

O'Connor did not respond did a request for comment on why she thought Lynch wanted a new contract.

LYNCH'S BIG announcement also sparked much conversation and speculation in Dracut, where selectmen are again seeking a permanent town manager to succeed now-retired Dennis Piendak.

Dracut Housing Authority commissioner Brian Bond said he phoned Selectman John Zimini to suggest the board recruit Lynch. Bond said Zimini responded that the Dracut town manager application window had already closed.

TWELVE PEOPLE have applied for the Dracut job, and there isn't a Lowell candidate among them. There is a candidate from another Greater Lowell town.

"I will not comment on the number of candidates or where they are from," said Thomas Bomil, chairman of the town's screening committee and its health director. "But I am pleased with the qualifications of a number of the candidates."

Other screening committee members are Michael Kuenzler, who owns the Four Oaks Golf Course; Ed Pitta, Lowell's fire chief; Michael Maguire, food services director in the School Department; and local lawyer Charles Braley.

The committee met for the first time Tuesday night and began narrowing the field. It will meet Thursday to develop a list of finalists for the Board of Selectmen to interview, hopefully by the end of the month, Bomil said. He added there will likely be four to six finalists.

Assistant Andover Town Manager Steven Bucuzzo, whom selectmen hired late last year, walked when the sides couldn't agree on a contract.

Selectmen appointed Treasurer Ann Vandal as interim town manager in November. Vandal was a finalist for the executive assistant position in Hudson, which went to Lowell CFO Tom Moses.

THE TIMING of City Auditor Sheryl Wright's announcement that she would be retiring next month raised eyebrows. Wright informed the council of her decision two days after Lynch announced his resignation, and with two years left on her contract.

Wright said her decision did not have much to do with Lynch. But Wright, 58, had worked for Lynch in Chelmsford and was thought to be Lynch's choice for the job when she was hired in 2007. Wright reports to the council under the charter, but her timing added another log to the fire that she was more loyal to Lynch than councilors. If so, she's no different from many of her predecessors who saddled up to the manager rather than the council.

"It makes me wonder whether she worked for us or the city manager," said Mercier, who took heat for supporting another contract for Wright.

Kennedy, an opponent of Wright's contract, says her decision is evidence that contracts benefit employees, not the city.

Wright, as required by her contract, gave the city at least 45 days written notice. She will be entitled to her full accrued vacation time, but no severance pay.

If the auditor was leaving for another job the council could have required her to waive up to $15,000 of her sick-leave buyback.

The Retirement Board soon will be down two members. Wright was an ex-officio member and former CFO Moses was Lynch's appointment.

ELLIOTT IS searching for a new aide. Elliott said he has received 22 applications, including 14 from Lowell. Elliott wants to hire a city resident to handle administrative duties in the Mayor's Office. The posted salary range is $41,868 to $49,084 for the non-union job. The deadline to apply is Monday.

Current aide Jennifer Myers is still employed. She has not applied, said Elliott.

Myers created the "Room 50" blog, described as "Alive, unique and inspiring tales from the Office of the Mayor, Lowell, Massachusetts." It was active during former Mayor Patrick Murphy's term.

It is now titled as "A Blog Chronicling the 2012-2013 Mayoral Term of Patrick O. Murphy of Lowell." It has been dormant since Murphy's last day, with no coverage of the inauguration Monday.

Myers is still busy on Facebook. She posted a "trial balloon" asking if people would prefer to see Lynch, who now lives in Lowell, as a state representative or a city councilor.

Her answer: "I'm suggesting Bernie Lynch either take on (state Rep.) Dave Nangle this year or run for City Council in 2015."

IT'S BEEN about six months since Tyngsboro selectmen have released executive-session minutes. Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto said the last time minutes were released was July 13, when the board released notes from eight private sessions. Six months between releases isn't fair, according to Selectman Bob Jackson, who says he will start championing for transparency.

"I think greater effort should be placed on getting minutes out, and (having them as) part of the public record. ... The public has a right to see them," he said.

Jackson noted a number of meeting minutes were not released previously because they relate to ongoing matters that required closure. But he said some issues have reached their conclusions, and now the public must know what went on.

"It's of (the town legal) counsel's opinion to not release minutes, but it's of my belief that everything should be released," he told The Sun this week. "Everything should be pushed out to public forum. And I think we need to do a better job to get the information out to the public and have them see what work is being done on their behalf."

Jackson said he'll make a formal request at Monday's selectmen's meeting at 6 p.m. Meanwhile, The Sun is waiting to hear back on an appeal to the Secretary of State regarding the release of minutes from an executive session pertaining to Sewer Superintendent and Selectman Allen Curseaden.

Curseaden got into some sort of tiff with Gilleberto and Sewer Commission Chairman Jeffrey Hannaford in the fall where Police Chief Richard Howe was called into "make a presence" at Town Hall. Curseaden was placed on administrative leave. In October, selectman held an executive session related to Curseaden.

Curseaden has been out on sick leave for a majority of that time since the session, but has attended public meetings in his official capacity.

TREASURER STEVE Grossman visited with area superintendents at Shawsheen Valley Technical High School in Billerica on Tuesday, as the candidate for governor unveiled his plan to boost funding for vocational schools.

During his stop he discussed how the emphasis on STEM education (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) should actually be expanded to STEAM, adding an "arts" category.

"It should also be about English and history and theater and music and playing an instrument, learning something that they can take with them for the rest of their lives," Grossman said. "It should be about STEAM, part of the holistic effort."

Grossman also praised culinary programs at vocational schools during his visit this week. Traveling across the state for countless school groundbreakings in the last few years as chairman of the Massachusetts School Building Authority, Grossman said he has always been served delectable meals.

"I always tell my wife when I go to afternoon events, 'Don't bother having dinner with me.' And she says, 'That's alright. You do the cooking in the house,' " Grossman said. "The sandwiches, the pastries, the buffet -- just incredible.

"When I went to a recent one with (U.S. Rep.) Joe Kennedy, he asked me, 'Do they cook like this every day?'" Grossman recounted. "And actually, they do. This wasn't just for Joe. This is the quality of the food that they serve to their own students and staff."

Before leaving Shawsheen on Tuesday, he made sure to eat a treat from the delicious spread the school provided. Shawsheen has a student-run bakery that is second to none that has earned national recognition.

The Democratic candidate's proposal unveiled last week calls for investments in vocational-technical education and new public-private partnerships for more internship opportunities, which would help close the skills gap between schools and the job market, he said.

CHELMSFORD SCHOOLS have a new director of community education. Shari Dennis was chosen from among 29 candidates by Superintendent Frank Tiano. Dennis was area director for Springboard Education in America, an academic support program. She has more than 23 years of experience as an educator, administrator, program developer and supervisor, the school district said. She has a bachelor's in early childhood education from the University of Massachusetts and a master's in education from Tufts University.

WONDERING WHO to blame -- er, thank-- for last week's bitter cold snap? Mystery solved. Local lawmakers stepped up to take the credit via social media this week.

IT'S RAINING tile, at least that's what it seemed like in Lowell District Court's first session on Monday. A leak soaked several tiles above where the defense attorneys sit. It wasn't long before the tiles came crashing down, sending attorneys running.

Can you say, "Is there a lawyer in the house?''

WILMINGTON'S DONNA Leone is keeping her word.

Just hours after her last-place finish in a five-way race for three School Committee seats last year, political newcomer Leone pledged on her Facebook page she'd give it another go in 2014.

She pulled papers at Town Hall this past week, making her thus far the only officially declared candidate in the contest for two spots on the School Committee.

Among the incumbents, Leslee Quick has said she's leaning against a run and Ginny Bonish has yet to announce her intentions.

"YOU ARE totally out of line."

That was Littleton Planning Board Chairman Mark Montanari's response when board member Richard Crowley suddenly proposed the board consider rezoning Nashoba Valley Ski Resort owner Al Fletcher's residential land during a public hearing on Fletcher's housing development project Thursday night. Crowley sharply criticized "a few members" of the board for having "stonewalled" Fletcher's attempts to rezone for commercial use for years, making his sports complex project impossible. Montanari insisted the public hearing was for the housing project.

"This is not a bad alternative to what can go in there," Montanari said later in the meeting about Fletcher's nine-home subdivision project in comparison to commercial use of the land.

MONTANARI WENT on to say he was concerned that Nashoba Valley Ski Resort's snow tubing facility has grown out of the scope allowed under the special permit the town issued years ago and wanted to sit down with Fletcher. Selectman Jim Karr, who was in the audience, made clear that he agreed with Crowley in that Montanari had been unfair in his dealings with the rezoning issues for Fletcher's land.

"You've been stonewalling for four years, forcing (the Fletchers) into housing development," Karr told Montanari.

Contributing to The Column this week: Enterprise Editor Christopher Scott, Lyle Moran in Lowell, Samantha Allen in Tyngsboro, John Collins in Dracut, Katie Lannan in Tewksbury, Hiroko Sato in Littleton, Rick Sobey in Billerica and Grant Welker in Chelmsford.

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